Safe and Sound
by Athena Writer 24601
Summary: How exactly did Katniss and Peeta grow back together after Mockingjay? This is how I think it happened. Please read!


**Woo! It's pretty late, so don't judge me on this story. I'll try to write more soon, but with exams soon I don't know when I can. **

**Love, Anna **

Ch 1

Everything I know is falling apart.

The rebellion's over. I'm so depressed and exhausted I can barely force myself out of bed in the mornings. I just go through the motions, getting up and eating and trying to act normal. I'm barely hanging on, and Peeta knows it. My mother and Haymitch know it. Gale and Greasy Sae know it. Almost everyone does, can see it in my eyes. They're gray and blank and empty. Emotionless. Filled with pain and completely numb.

It's morning now. I don't have to squint at the sun because it's gray and miserable outside. Just like me. Cold and alone.

I shuffle downstairs, hoping the dark circles under my eyes aren't too pronounced. I promised Peeta I'd come get him at his house if I had nightmares, but I couldn't bring myself to wake him. He was three houses away and deserved his sleep.

I rub my eyes and sink down at the table, burying my head in my arms. My stomach grumbles menacingly, and it crosses my mind that I can't remember the last time I've eaten. Two, three days ago? Peeta hasn't visited me in ages, and my mother and Prim are busy elsewhere.

I hear the door open, and weakly raise my head. Peeta's standing in the doorframe, holding a loaf of bread and looking concerned. He crosses the room and sits down next to me.

"Katniss, you have to eat," Peeta says firmly. "I can practically count your ribs."

Reluctantly I take a slice of bread from him and eat it. It's delicious, of course, but to me it simply tastes like nothing. Empty. I feel like the bread, empty and void of anything at all.

Before I even realize it, the bread's gone and Peeta has his hand on my shoulder, forcing me to drink a glass of water. He gently brushes some hair out of my eyes and sighs.

"Why are you shutting everything out?" he asks.

I stare at him blankly. "What do you mean?"

He frowns. "You won't answer the phone when anyone calls. You don't eat unless someone makes you. And it's clear you haven't been sleeping," he says, gesturing to my wild, circled eyes.

My shoulders slump forward and I close my eyes, covering my face with my hands. I don't want to talk to him, not now. Why can't he just leave me alone?

"I'm worried about you, Katniss. You're fading."

I sit up straight, jolted by this accusation. Surely I'm not…_fading_. _Fading _is the word you use when someone is dying. And I'm not dying, at least not physically.

Does mentally count?

I scowl at Peeta. "I'm fine."

"Right, and I'm your mother," he says sarcastically.

Somehow this comment rubs my the wrong way. I'm not sure if it's because of all the rough experiences with my mother that's made her and our relationship a fragile subject for me, or the fact that my mother isn't here, she left me alone while she went to 2. But either way, this ticks me off.

I stand up and march outside, angry. It's the first time I've been outside in months, and I wince even though the sun's not out. A light breeze blows through and I look around at the world I haven't seen in quite a while.

I slump onto the porch steps and wrap my arms around myself, biting my lip. Why did he say that? I know he was playing around, trying to make a point that I'm not fine. It's true, I'm not. But who is he to go making offhand comments like that?

I feel Peeta sit next to me and sigh. "I'm sorry, Katniss."

I close my eyes. Why does he have to be so sweet? It's impossible to stay mad at Peeta.

"It's okay," I tell him. "I guess…I don't know. I just miss her. I wish she'd come back. Face everything."

Peeta nods. "Some people have different ways of coping with pain."

_Like me_, I think bitterly. _I shut everybody out. I don't deserve you, Peeta. Not at all. _

A thought occurs to me, suddenly, and I get to my feet. "Peeta? What's today?"

He frowns, thinking. "Friday."

"No, Peeta," I say, a note of hysteria rising in my voice. "What's the _date_?"

He checks his watch. "May twenty-sixth."

I suck in air, my breathing getting faster. "No," I mutter. "No, no, no!"

It's her birthday. The thing I'd been trying to get around, somehow skip the day.

Peeta stands quickly, knowing what I'm getting at. "Katniss—"

I turn and sprint away as fast as I can. Perhaps I can escape today, run so fast I reach tomorrow. But I don't think about anything much except for running, trying to get away from the horror that fills me.

I dash barefoot through the Seam, through the Meadow and under the fence, into the woods. As I duck under the barbed wire of the fence it catches my arm and leaves a deep gash. I cry out in pain, stumbling, but I quickly righten my pace and keep running. I must look insane, but I don't care.

I wonder if Peeta cares enough to follow me. He's scared of the woods. I don't blame him—the hijacking left some terrifying memories of them as well. It'd be hard to separate illusions from reality, lies from the truth. Especially if your head said one thing but everyone else told you differently.

Farther and farther into the woods I run. Tears are streaking down my face and I can hardly breathe. But I carry on.

It comes out of nowhere. The rock seems to have risen out of the ground and I don't see it in time.

I trip, yelling, and instead of crashing to the ground I fall into a cold river right behind the rock. I crash into it, my palms and my knees slamming into the sharp rocks on the bottom. I roll and hit the bottom, gasping for breath. At one moment my head slams into a rock and I black out for almost a minute.

When I come to, I shoot to the surface and cough up water, struggling to inhale and stay above water. I manage to drag myself out of the river and collapse onto the shore, gagging and crying all at the same time.

I pull my knees to my chest and sob miserably. Some of it's from the pain, yes, the bruises and cuts. But most of it's from the shock that today would've been Prim's birthday.

I hear Peeta in the distance, calling my name. I guess he decided to brave the woods and find me.

When he does find me, I'm curled up, bleeding and crying. He wordlessly sits beside me and carefully puts him arms around me while sob.

"It's okay, Katniss, it's okay," he says softly, wiping tears from my cheeks.

"She would have been fourteen," I choke out. My head's pounding and my arm stings violently from where the barbed wire cut me.

"Katniss, your arm!" Peeta says suddenly, looking at it. It's bleeding heavily, and I feel extremely dizzy. He rips a piece of cloth off his shirt and presses it to the wound. "We have to get you home."

He scoops me up carefully and starts making the trek back to my house. The world's darkening, and I can hear Peeta's voice calling me, asking me to stay awake.

The last thing I remember is the look of horror he wore on his face as he looked down at me, slipping into blackness.


End file.
